Pins & Needles Costume https://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk Custom costume and accessories Sun, 11 Feb 2018 00:44:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.3 Circlets https://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=140 Tue, 22 Sep 2015 17:09:02 +0000 http://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=140 Two circlets I made for magicians in Empire LRP.

These are examples; many colours, shapes, finishes etc are possible. The brown circlet has a fake gemstone in the centre, also available in a variety of colours and sizes. Pictures with thanks to my model Large Mixing Bowl 😉

To commission a circlet like one of these would cost around £15-25 depending on complexity. These two would be at the lower end of that scale.

Natural leather circlet

Natural leather circlet

Circlet with gemstone

Circlet with gemstone

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Quilted Mage Armour https://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=134 Thu, 20 Aug 2015 10:15:33 +0000 http://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=134 A set of mage armour made for Empire LRP, where magicians can wear all sorts of fantasy armour that provides magical rather than physical protection.

This set of gorget, hero belt and vambraces is made of quilted taffeta with light padding, with the hero belt stiffened in the front to keep it from bending. The colour scheme and phoenix embroidery are of course the heraldry of the character’s group.

To commission a similar set with custom embroidery would cost around £90.

Quilted Gorget

Quilted Gorget

Quilted Hero Belt

Quilted Hero Belt

Quilted Vambrace

Quilted Vambrace

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Embroidered Vambraces https://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=129 Sat, 04 Jul 2015 14:17:19 +0000 http://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=129 Lightweight vambraces, decorated with machine embroidered flower and leaf designs for my Empire character in Navarr. Made of 1mm suede and embroidered with viscose thread.

To commission a similar pair of vambraces would cost around £20, or a little more with a customer-provided design for the embroidery.

Embroidered Vambraces

Embroidered Vambraces

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Embroidered T-Shirt https://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=125 Wed, 28 Jan 2015 19:07:02 +0000 http://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=125 This was made for the son of the player of a Dawnish knight in Empire LRP. To embroider a similar design on a provided garment would cost around £5, or I can get hold of t-shirts and onesies and will charge cost price for those.

Child's embroidered top

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Looting Sacks! https://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=119 Wed, 28 Jan 2015 19:04:07 +0000 http://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=119  

 

 

Lightweight collapsible looting sacks. Hanging off a belt via a popper (or a tie, if you prefer no modern parts), these sacks can be removed and unfolded quickly for any “acquisition” of “items” you may be doing and then closed firmly with drawstring handles.

Bags can be made in any size (within reason!) and would cost around £10 each unless unusually large. The ones in this picture were made of polycotton but cotton could be arranged for a small extra charge.

Looting Sack

Unfolded bag.

Looting Sack

Roll up from the bottom, making sure to keep the drawstring tucked inside the bag.

Looting Sack

Roll left to right, towards the fastening tie

Looting Sack

Tie the fastener, collapsing a 30×24″ ish bag into the size of a packet of cigarettes.

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Some Embroidered Patches https://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=113 Mon, 26 Jan 2015 14:26:39 +0000 http://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=113 These are embroidered patches and belt tags for groups at Empire LARP run by Profound Decisions. In order, Adina’s Charge and Felix’s Watch of Highguard, and Open Skies of Navarr.

To commission patches like these would cost around £5 each, with discounts for bulk orders and small premiums for more than three or four colours. I’d be looking at £8 or so for a belt tag, again with discounts for bulk orders.

embroidered patch

Adina’s Charge embroidered patch

embroidered patch

Felix’s Watch embroidered patch

Open Skies Belt Tag

Open Skies belt tag

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My Own Wedding Dress https://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=107 Wed, 19 Nov 2014 17:59:48 +0000 http://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=107 Unsurprisingly to anyone reading this, I made my own wedding dress. Given my hourglass figure I felt that a corset on the top half was the way to go, and I learned a lot about fitting corsets to large busts in the process!

The dress is made of blood-red shot silk dupion (actually from a curtain fabric department! Never discount those in your search for appropriate fabrics!) and the corset is lined in cotton coutil for strength. The bones at front and back are made of flat spring steel and those over the bust of spiral steel wires to add flexibility without compromising on support.

I am proud to be able to say that I could (just about!) get in and out of the dress by myself and bend over to touch my toes. Corsetry doesn’t have to be hugely restrictive… unless you want it to be 😉

If commissioning an overbust corset from me, I would need to be able to do a fitting in person- as a corset needs to be exactly the same shape as its wearer there is no substitute for actually trying on a mockup.

Wedding dress

Wedding dress

Dress with wrap

Dress with wrap

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Fantasy Army Uniforms https://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=102 Wed, 19 Nov 2014 17:19:28 +0000 http://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=102 I made these uniforms for a group at Maelstrom larp a long time ago now, and could do it so much better now, but I loved their unified look so much it’d seem a shame not to post them.

A ballpark cost for one coat and sash as worn here would be around £100.

Gnoll in uniform

Gnoll in uniform

Gnoll in uniform

Gnoll in uniform

MACH unit in uniform

MACH unit in uniform

Close up of Havoc's Dogs sash

Sash close-up

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Building a custom fit leather corset https://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=97 Wed, 19 Nov 2014 12:53:06 +0000 http://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=97 This corset was made for me, for a character in Odyssey larp who became a priest of Tanit, mother goddess of Carthage.

Here, in stages, is how I made it…

Leather corset pieces

Pieces cut out

I drafted a corset pattern to my own measurements, and then cut the pieces out of 3mm veg-tan leather. Corsets usually have a front fastening to make putting them on and taking them off easier, but this wasn’t practical for the design I had in mind. I would just have to suffer.

I then bevelled the edges of each piece to smooth and neaten them.

Tanit symbol carved in leather

Tanit symbol carved in leather

Next, I carved Tanit’s symbol into the front piece with a swivel knife and then a beveller to give it some texture. After letting that dry it was time to put the corset together.

Front of leather corset

Front riveted

The first three pieces are riveted together with brass rivets. You can see the curved shape of the corset starting to form.

Wet-moulding the corset

Wet-moulding the corset

After the corset was all put together, I riveted tiny D-rings to the back, for lacing. Then it was time for moulding the corset exactly to my body. To do this I put it on loosely, then wore it in a shower as hot as I could stand to soften it, and then tightened the laces. I repeated this process a few times and then wore the wet corset for as long as I could put up with (this turned out to be about two hours). Then I removed it and allowed it to dry slowly.

Dyed leather corset

Dyed leather corset

The above photograph shows the corset after initial dyeing with Fiebing’s leather dye.

Leather corset with Tanit symbol

Tanit symbol now painted

Here is the corset with Tanit’s symbol now painted on, using Angelus leather paint thinned down with resolene varnish. It’s pretty rigid after wet-moulding and dyeing.

Leather corset

Varnished corset

The corset is finished! It’s a lot shinier now it’s been sealed with resolene varnish.

Tanit Corset

Tanit Corset

Finally, wearing it at the event! Image credit to Tom Garnett for that last one.

To commission a similar corset custom fit to your measurements would cost in the region of £150.

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Custom Embroidered Baby Clothes https://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=94 Wed, 19 Nov 2014 12:24:38 +0000 http://www.pinsandneedlescostume.co.uk/?p=94 Turns out baby clothes for children with two mums aren’t that widely available in the shops yet. The mums are also larpers, hence the “let me tell you about my character” babygro in the bottom right.

To embroider a slogan or design on provided clothing would cost around £5 each.

Assorted babygros wtih slogans

Assorted babygros

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